Lightroom Classic is a versatile program that offers a great combination of image-management features and photo-editing tools. That’s why I chose it 15+ years ago as my main editor and photo manager, and it’s why I still use it regularly today.
But while Lightroom’s features are certainly impressive, there are a handful of areas where the program just doesn’t meet my needs. I don’t want to get rid of Lightroom—like I said, I’ve been working with the software for 10+ years, and at this point, I’m heavily invested in a Lightroom workflow—so I’ve begun to rely on Lightroom plugins to expand and enhance the software’s capabilities.
And here’s what I’ve found: With the right plugins, I can have the best of both worlds: the consistent, smooth, reliable workflow provided by Lightroom in addition to the latest technology (often powered by artificial intelligence) for rapidly finding, organizing, and editing my images.
There are dozens of great Lightroom plugins you can buy, but I’ve discovered a few that I use regularly and absolutely love, which I share below. Of course, every photographer is different, and there are indeed plugins that I don’t use myself but that could be a perfect match for your own needs. Therefore, in this article, I also include Lightroom Classic plugins that I don’t use as part of my workflow but that I’ve tested extensively and wholeheartedly recommend to my photography students.
Each of the plugins on this list has a purpose, and while you don’t need to go out and buy all of them, I’d be surprised if you aren’t tempted by one or two.
Let’s dive right in!
Excire Search 2024: The Best Plugin for Photo Organization
Most of the best Lightroom plugins offer tools for enhancing your photos, but Excire Search 2024 goes in a different direction: instead of helping you edit your images, Excire’s plugin leverages powerful AI to help you find, cull, and organize them. It’s a plugin that I use constantly on my own image collection, and it saves me so much time when I need to find images for editing or for display on my website.
My favorite Search 2024 feature is the amazing Search by Text Prompt tool, which lets you instantly find any image in your Lightroom catalog by inputting a text description. In other words, you type “Boy in red sneakers playing basketball,” and the plugin immediately shows you all the images in your Lightroom catalog of red-sneakered boys shooting hoops. It’s not based on keywords or tagging; instead, Search by Text Prompt uses Excire’s in-house AI model to recognize the relevant features in each image.
But Excire Search 2024 also includes plenty of other AI-powered image-management features. The Search for Faces and Search for People tools use facial-recognition software to find photos in your catalog based on specific features or even a reference image, and the Search by Aesthetics tool reorders your photos by aesthetic quality to dramatically speed up the culling process. There’s even an AI keywording feature, which can automatically apply keywords to your images upon import so you don’t have to.
(Note: Lightroom Classic does already include facial-recognition tools, but I’ve found that Excire’s plugin does a much better job. And though I’m not much of a portrait photographer, I do like to use the Search for People tool to quickly organize and access my family photos.)
Basically, if you ever wish you could find your photos more quickly—or organize them more effectively—then Excire Search 2024 is a plugin you don’t want to miss. It’s also worth mentioning that Search 2024 is unusually well-integrated into Lightroom; unlike other programs on this list, Search 2024 allows you to work within Lightroom so you’re not stuck going back and forth between the main Lightroom interface and a separate plugin window. Instead, simply choose Library>Plug-in Extras, then select the Excire tool you’re looking for from the fly-out menu:
Of course, Lightroom already boasts solid image-management features, but as I said above, I’ve been using Adobe’s program for a long time. I know from experience that it takes a lot of effort to tag, search for, and cull files. With Excire Search 2024, you can take advantage of Lightroom’s existing features while also streamlining your workflow, saving time, and keeping your catalog organized.
Luminar Neo: The Best Plugin for AI Editing
I’ve spent a lot of time testing Skylum’s Luminar software over the years, and while I’ve always been frustrated by the lack of comprehensive organization features, as a Lightroom editing plugin, Luminar Neo excels.
The plugin is reasonably easy to access from within Lightroom, and the interface is wonderfully sleek, but for me, Luminar Neo’s biggest selling point is the bevy of easy-to-use AI editing tools. Every time I check, there seem to be more features: Sky AI, for instance, lets you swap out an image’s original sky for a replacement file, while the Sunrays tool seamlessly incorporates sunrays into your shot, and Composition AI (as part of the Crop AI tool) analyzes the image and automatically suggests a crop for maximum impact. You’ll also find plenty of AI-powered retouching features so you can edit skin (Skin AI), eyes (Face AI), portrait backgrounds (Bokeh AI), and more with almost zero effort.
The plugin also includes standard image-editing features. Many of these overlap with Lightroom’s own editing tools, but there are some unique options for creative post-processing, including layers, relighting tools, and glow effects, not to mention some really nice built-in presets:
Finally, there are the more recent add-ons. Some of these were originally offered as extensions and are now packaged into the core plugin, including Noiseless AI for intelligent noise reduction and Supersharp AI to help you recover details, both of which come in handy when attempting to process lower-quality files; in my testing, I often found myself relying on Noiseless AI to handle high ISO images shot at night, and I was genuinely impressed by the results (though as with most AI-intensive tools, both Noiseless AI and Supersharp AI did take a while to run, which can be a drawback if you need to edit many images at once).
Unfortunately, a few of Luminar’s add-ons are not available as part of the Lightroom plugin; Focus Stacking, for instance, lets you combine multiple shallow depth-of-field images into a single deep depth-of-field shot, but it’s only available in the standalone version. And the latest generative AI features, such as GenErase, GenExpand, and GenSwap, are unavailable in the Lightroom plugin (and they’re limited depending on the package you purchase).
The good news is that when purchasing a copy of Luminar Neo, you can install both the plugin and the standalone version, which prevents you from needing to choose between one or the other. And you also have the option to choose between an annual subscription and a lifetime license, neither of which is terribly expensive (especially if you buy during a sale).
DxO ViewPoint 5: The Best Perspective Correction Plugin
When I first published this article, I explained that DxO’s ViewPoint 4 plugin was the Lightroom editing plugin that I used more than any other. I do a lot of street and architectural photography, so my photos frequently include subjects in need of perspective correction: building exteriors, building interiors, and even landscape features such as trees. A few months after I published my original Lightroom plugin recommendations, DxO released ViewPoint 5, which I immediately purchased, and which has now replaced its predecessor on this list. In my view, it’s a major step up from the (already excellent) ViewPoint 4.
You see, I’m a longtime Lightroom user, but while Lightroom does include a few perspective-correction tools in its Transform panel, I’ve found its performance to be mixed. For fairly simple architectural shots with clear verticals and horizontals, Lightroom can deal with converging lines without much fuss; you can just tap the Auto or Vertical button, and the program will straighten up your buildings almost instantly. But when dealing with more complex images—files with deliberately non-straight building elements, with high-contrast lines on the ground, with horizon lines that are obscured by foreground elements, and so on—Lightroom fails to do a good job. It often seems like Lightroom is tricked by irrelevant lines in my photos and makes the images worse, rather than better, as a result.
That’s when I turn to DxO ViewPoint, which includes an amazing perspective correction panel but also boasts an array of other handy features for adjusting perspective and framing: tools for cropping, leveling, handling distortion, and creating a fun tilt-shift effect. I currently spend most of my time in ViewPoint 5 working with the perspective correction panel, and I couldn’t be more pleased.
But I want to emphasize: In addition to the slew of perspective correction and framing tools, ViewPoint 5 includes the handy Reshape Fusion tool, and it is incredible. Yes, a similar tool, called Reshape, did exist in ViewPoint 4, but the new Reshape Fusion is on an entirely different level. Not only can you push and pull a grid to reshape elements in your image, but you can select from a variety of different grids, including a wild-looking 32×32 option, for extreme control over each portion of the image:
And you can also use a new Propagation slider to adjust the amount that each Reshape adjustment will affect the other Reshape pins:
The plugin doesn’t have much of a learning curve, but it offers a ton of power. When I first tried ViewPoint for myself, I couldn’t believe what I’d been missing—so if you’re a photographer who often captures architecture or you simply run into perspective issues when editing, I think ViewPoint 5 is worth the $110 price tag.
Nik Collection 7: The Best Plugins for One-Click Adjustments
If you’ve been in the photography world for a while, you’ve likely heard of the Nik Collection. The Collection has had something of a turbulent history; it was developed by Nik, then bought by Google, which made the plugins free to use. A few years later, it was bought by DxO, which has continued to develop the product alongside its own editing software but also brought back the paid model. In 2025, it’s still the most effective Lightroom plugin for one-click adjustments, and plenty of photographers use it to give their photos that final, professional touch.
The Nik Collection actually consists of seven different plugins, each with its own theme, including:
- Nik Silver Efex, which produces breathtaking black-and-white effects in a variety of styles
- Nik Analog Efex, which simulates film effects such as light leaks, grain, bokeh, and so much more
- Nik Color Efex, which offers 24 filters and plenty of beautiful one-click presets for all sorts of color and tonal adjustments
- Nik Dfine, which is a dedicated noise-reduction plugin that includes tools for measuring noise and selective denoising
It’s hard to say anything bad about the Nik Collection; not only do you get amazing one-click presets, but you can also create your own filters and apply manual tweaks as you see fit. At times, some of the tools can be overwhelming, but if you stick to the presets, that shouldn’t be a problem (or so I’ve found). Even the price isn’t bad, since you get seven plugins for a one-time fee of $160. I do wish that the seven plugins could be packaged into a single interface—it would make for an easier workflow—but that’s a minor issue.
I’ll also mention that DxO does offer a 30-day free trial on the Nik Collection, so if you’re not sure whether the editing effects are worth the cost, you can always spend a few weeks testing out the different features before making your decision.
Topaz Photo AI 3: The Best Image Enhancement Plugin
Topaz Labs is known for its AI-powered image-enhancement software, and the company’s latest Lightroom plugin, Photo AI 3, deserves attention from every photographer.
Unlike Luminar Neo (also on this list, below), Photo AI 3 is designed for image enhancement, not image editing. In other words, the program lets you target various aspects of image quality but doesn’t include manual adjustment tools for precise tonal edits, color grading, cloning, and so on. Photo AI 3 is very much a companion plugin that goes above and beyond Lightroom’s tools in a few key areas but won’t replace your Lightroom workflow entirely. Note that Photo AI 3 can be used as a standalone program, but if you’re already a Lightroom user, as I am, I think the plugin version makes for a better (i.e., simpler) workflow.
Topaz Labs is perhaps most famous for its AI-powered upscaling technology, and that is indeed present in Photo AI 3. But Photo AI 3 includes a slew of other enhancement tools including Denoise (which comes in handy whenever you’re shooting at high ISOs or dealing with heavily underexposed files), Sharpen (great for recovering details that were lost due to camera shake or subject motion), and even Super Focus (which uses generative AI to repair out-of-focus image elements).
What’s especially notable, however, is the Autopilot feature. When you enhance an image with Photo AI, the software analyzes the file from the get-go and suggests specific enhancements; you can then apply these suggestions with the click of a button:
If you’re interested in improving your photos but you’re just not sure where to start, Autopilot should help you move past that initial anxiety—and over time, you’ll get a sense of which edits to apply to specific photos.
Whenever I’ve tested Topaz Labs programs, I’ve come away impressed. The enhancement features are top-notch, and the minimalistic interface makes it easy for inexperienced photographers to feel comfortable. My biggest criticism is the speed; applying AI adjustments to an image is frustratingly slow, at least on my computer (it’s not brand new, but it is a reasonably powerful desktop machine).
I should also mention the price; since I’m already paying for Lightroom, shelling out $199 for a program that simply improves upon Lightroom’s already proficient editing tools feels like a lot. But if image quality is a priority, you’re not too bothered by the processing time, and you find yourself wishing for better sharpening, upscaling, and denoising tools, Photo AI 3 is worth the cost. (For those of you who are primarily interested in Photo AI’s upscaling feature, I’d recommend passing on Photo AI and checking out Gigapixel 8 instead, which offers class-leading upscaling technology without any other tools.)
DxO PureRAW 4: The Best Plugin for Improving Image Quality
In my original coverage of the Lightroom Classic plugins, DxO PureRAW was left out. This wasn’t because the plugin was bad, but I hadn’t tested it extensively, so I didn’t feel comfortable recommending its tools.
Since then, however, I’ve spent a lot of time working with the latest version, PureRAW 4, and I firmly believe it deserves a spot on this list. While PureRAW 4 isn’t a comprehensive editing tool, it excels in its specialized function: improving RAW image quality at the start of your workflow. Rather than offering complex editing features, PureRAW 4 focuses on four core corrections: sharpening, vignetting removal, chromatic aberration correction, and lens distortion correction. And DxO’s AI-powered DeepPRIME engine offers noise reduction and detail processing.
I loved PureRAW 4’s workflow flexibility from the start. In Lightroom, you have two options: You can either open the program with an image preview (so it essentially functions as a standalone app) or without a preview (so it appears as a simple pop-up). The former option is ideal if you want to assess your RAW edits as you go, while the latter option can shorten your workflow once you’re familiar with the tool.
Although PureRAW 4’s interface feels somewhat old-fashioned and minimalistic, its speed and efficiency make up for this. The editing process is straightforward: select your desired corrections, hit Process Now, and get on with your editing in the Lightroom Develop module.
Of course, no RAW enhancer is worth anything if it can’t actually, well, enhance your files, but I’m happy to report that DxO PureRAW 4 does an outstanding job. PureRAW 4’s capabilities are driven by DxO’s extensive database of lens and camera test results, and it shows. The chromatic aberration removal is especially outstanding—better than anything I’ve seen. Lightroom’s native CA removal has always felt insufficient, and manual correction in a program such as Photoshop can be frustratingly tedious.
By the way: DxO PureRAW 4 may seem similar to Topaz Photo AI 3 (above), and I went into my most recent set of tests expecting to pick between the two. I soon realized, however, that the programs serve different purposes. PureRAW 4 is more of an image corrector; it ensures your RAW files appear captured by a „perfect“ lens. In contrast, Photo AI 3 functions as an image enhancer, offering aesthetic adjustments like color correction, lighting tweaks, and object removal, but avoiding fundamental correction tools. (That said, both programs do feature AI-powered denoising capabilities, and both perform exceptionally well in that regard.)
I’ll note two more benefits of PureRAW over Topaz Photo AI: First, PureRAW 4’s speed—I experienced no lag or performance issues, which was not the case for Topaz Photo AI. Second, PureRAW 4 is currently a lot more affordable, so if you’re trying to decide between the two and you’re on a budget, it might be the better pick.
Choose the Perfect Lightroom Plugin for Your Workflow
As you should now be aware, plugins are so much more than clunky and unnecessary Lightroom add-ons. Instead, the best options include cutting-edge technology (often powered by AI!) to help you both edit and manage your photos.
If you’re looking to boost the quality of your images, then you can’t go wrong with the Topaz Photo AI 3 plugin; its denoising, sharpening, and upscaling algorithms are top-of-the-line, and the software is easy to use. DxO PureRAW 4 is another great (and lightning fast) option, though it focuses more on RAW file correction than image enhancement.
If photo editing and creative effects are more to your liking, then both Luminar Neo and the Nik Collection are tough to beat. Luminar Neo offers futuristic AI tools to simplify complex tasks (such as sky-swapping), while the Nik Collection’s seven plugins are great for adding finishing touches to your photos. For architecture, street, real-estate and other types of photographers who frequently need to apply perspective corrections, DxO ViewPoint 5 is a personal favorite.
Finally, if you want to speed up your image-organization workflow and search through your entire catalog in less than a second, Excire Search 2024 is the plugin to buy. The software’s AI technology is state of the art, and the seamless integration with Lightroom ensures a smooth image-management workflow.
So grab your favorite Lightroom plugin and enjoy!
